1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of 3-[5′-(3,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)benzyloxy)-2′-ethyl-2-propylbiphenyl-4-yl]pentan-3-ol of formula:

2. Description of Background and/or Related and/or Prior Art
The compounds of the family of the above 3-[5′-(3,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)benzyloxy)-2′-ethyl-2-propylbiphenyl-4-yl]pentan-3-ol and their applications in human medicine have been described by the assignee hereof in WO 03/050067.
In this patent application, the synthesis of 3-[5′-(3,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)benzyloxy)-2′-ethyl-2-propylbiphenyl-4-yl]pentan-3-ol is carried out in 17 stages. The majority of the intermediates generated in this synthesis are purified by chromatography on a silica column, making it difficult to manufacture this product on a large scale.
In addition, due to this large number of stages, the overall yield of this synthesis is very low, less than 0.5%, and the manufacturing times are very long.